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Exercise 8a: Working with archaic
pronouns
The following song text, “Friendly Persuasion”, from the 1956 film of the
same name, attempts to provide a sense of the old-fashioned quaintness of
Quaker speech by employing the archaic personal pronoun, “thee”. From a
purely linguistic point of view, however, the text contains at least three types
of errors:
• “Thee” is misused in several contexts. Which ones? What archaic
pronoun form should have been used instead? Why?
• The verb form in the clause “Thee is mine” is also incorrect. What
should it be? Why?
• The text is inconsistent in that it uses the modern second person form
as a dependent (your bonnet, your cape, your glove). For the sake of
consistency, what archaic pronoun should have been used instead?
Why?
“Friendly Persuasion”
Thee I love, more than the meadow so green and still
More than the mulberries on the hill
More than the buds of a May apple tree, I love thee
Arms have I, strong as the oak, for this occasion
Lips have I, to kiss thee, too, in friendly persuasion
Thee is mine, though I don't know many words of praise
Thee pleasures me in a hundred ways
Put on your bonnet, your cape, and your glove
And come with me, for thee I love
Further reading:
Robins, R[obert] H[enry]. “The Development of the Word Class System of
the European Grammatical Tradition.” Foundations of Language. 2: 3-19.
1966.
page 52
John M. Dienhart